Lawmakers are looking to pass new legislation that could soon see scarce cyber hires at the Defense Department receive incentive pay and bonuses to help the agency compete with private sector rates, Nextgov reported Tuesday.
The Senate Armed Services Committee-approved measure asks all military services to establish by January 2015 “whether recruiting, retention, and assignment of service members with cyber skills requires bonuses or special and incentive pays.â€
Text of the marked up bill detailed that the military also needs to determine if job rotation of civilian cyber workers to military components or cyber missions “would enhance (their) professional development and career progression,” according to Nextgov.
Aliya Sternstein writes the provision was attached to the Senate’s fiscal year 2015 defense policy bill detailed on Friday but was not included in the House version approved Thursday.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has indicated that the department’s goal is to have 6,000 professionals with cyber skills in 2016, up from the 1,800-strong cyber mission force it expects to have by yearend.
